Chapter Two - "On the Defensive"

[Tahoshi]

"The same as you, I'd imagine." Akiko said, smiling. "Just going for a walk, you were sleeping when i left, so i didn't want to disturb you." she finished, putting her hand on Juno's head and messing up her hair.

"I can sense your unease though, you're right... Something is wrong." she added, taking away her hand. Something on the top of Juno's head glowed for a second, before vanishing, as if it was soaking into her head.

"Everyone here thinks we're enemies. They're after us, Juno." she said softly, to guarantee that only Juno heard it. While the magic worked, Akiko smiled wickedly.


"Now you are my little Angel." she whispered.

[Juno]

"WHAT!?" Hotaru shouted as the Captain of squad 4 told her what happened. "How the hell did this happen... How did you not NOTICE!?" She was not taking too kindly to the fact that the medics had somewhat... misplaced... her Captain. Groaning, the Seated Officer rubbed her forehead. "Well. We need to find her. There's no way she's fully recovered yet... And what if something happens to her?" A few moments silence. "I'm going now. Tell Zero-san what happened and have him help look as well." She slung her Zanpakutoh over her shoulder and quickly rushed off. The Captain sighed and motioned for his Vice Captain to go find the other Seated Officer that Hotaru had mentioned. He then started on his way back to his own HQ to organize a few more small search parties.

*************

"They're after us..? What are we going to do?" Juno questioned, her voice dropping back to barely a whisper. Her eyes scanned the steadily growing darkness at the end of the alleyway anxiously. Slowly, her eyes came back to her Captain before she realized something terrible. "I don't have my Zanpakutoh...!" It was then that they heard light footsteps coming closer...

[Sir Razgriz]

Razgriz was lost in dream world as his former captain left. However, he didn't stay that way for too much longer. His Vice-Captain came in, sat down...and promptly fell into her own dream world. However, she didn't stay that way for too much longer.
She was having a nightmare; that much was obvious by the screams that woke up the rooms other occupant, who proceeded to wake her up.

"Why were you screaming? Sheesh; talking about being loud enough to wake the dead. You scared me half to death. I wake up to you screaming to someone to stay away from you and then you fall quiet and start up again."
A pause.
"Are you okay? You look like you've been crying."

However, at that exact moment, Hotaru expressed her aggravation at the hospital's less-than-ideal security, which brought the duo's attention to the people running around in the hallway.

"Damn...I was looking forward to some R&R..."


*-*-*-*-*-*Meanwhile, a few rooms down.*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Could that be it? She was only out for five minutes? It couldn't be too much more; there was only one major injury, and the Lorde was kicking too much butt for there to have been only one injury like that during a longer period of time.
"Ah, well," Galm said, "I guess it doesn't matter."
With the silence in her room, she heard more footsteps, and quicker, than she had since before Captains Yuudai and Breyer were patched up.

"WHAT!? How the hell did this happen... How did you not NOTICE!?" Who the hell was that, and what's going on?

Getting out of her bed, she went out of her room to try to find out the latter. Galm was in luck; she heard someone say to someone else while running by, "Yeah, 9th squad's captain; she's gone!"

Not noticing the irony of her disappearing to find someone who disappeared, she went towards her captain's room to report what she'd heard.

[Tahoshi]

"We can get your weapon back" Akiko said, "they took it from you, trying to stop you..." she said, the wickedness in her eyes flared up for a split second when juno wasn't looking at her.

"Come on, this way." she said, grabbing Juno's hand and disappearing into the shadows. "They're looking for us, but they'll never suspect us being right under their noses." she said, sneaking through the dark back-alleys with Juno in tow, heading back towards the squad 4 HQ.

"You're fast, Angel. you can get in there, and get your sword back before they even know you've been there." she said, smiling at her. "I'm not as fast as you, so i'll wait for you.... Don't stop for any of them, ok?" she said to her, hoping she'd take that literally, and fight her way out if necessary.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Back in Hueco Mundo, Kyuuketsuki watched his play unfold, from the seclusion of a negacion field, that none of the Shinigami would be able to see, let alone get into.

"That's it, my pretty..." the Hollow said quietly, his features broke into an evil smile, as an echoing laugh filled the room. Some of it may have filtered into Seireitei, but the commotion of a missing captain would've hidden it rather well. All was going as he had planned.

[Sir Razgriz]

Galm burst into the room, and announced that Capt. Breyer had disappeared.

"What?!" Razgriz demanded,"What happened?"

"I dunno; she just up and left, evidently."

"Well; let's go look for her!"

"But, sir; what about your leg?" The former asked.

"Oh, yeah; that. Hang on a minute." Thus saying, he grabbed his zanpakutoh, unsheated it, and rolled up the robes over his bad leg. Putting his sheath behind his knee so the end was level with his heel, he concentrated and said "Hold fast to this." There was some minor pain as his sheath essentially fused with his knee, but it quickly dispersed.

"Okay, let's see if this worked." Turning his body, he stood up on his right leg before anxiously putting pressure on his left. "Hmm... no excruciating pain, that's a good start... I can walk... Let's go!" He hobbled sprinted to the door, taking those in his room by surprise and almost leaving them behind.

[Juno]

Juno nodded and broke away from Akiko, swiftly making her way back to Squad Four headquarters. All of 5 seconds had passed and she was back in the room that she had, until recently, been unconscious in. Her Zanpakutoh was at the foot of the bed. Kneeling down, she picked up the twin sheaths and tucked them carefully into her sash. As she stood, prepared to take her leave, she noticed someone else in the room. And that someone noticed her.

"Captai-" His cry was silenced, before any alarm could be raised, by one of Blitzshnell's twin fangs. The gurgling Shinigami collapsed to the ground, gasping and wheezing as he clutched his maimed neck. With another quick movement, Juno rammed the blade through the top of his skull, ending all bodily activity other than the profuse leakage of blood from his head and neck. The pool of blood was rapidly expanding. Juno took a small hop back to avoid getting the blood on her feet. Walking towards the bed again, Juno wiped off the sword clenched in her left hand before sheathing it again and finally flashing from the vicinity.

No more than one and a half minutes had passed by the time she made her way back to Akiko. Blood was smeared across the redhead's face as well as dappling the front of her robes from the arterial spray. "They had someone waiting there...." She muttered, internally patronizing herself for not having thought about any security that might have been placed in Seireitei since her 'escape'. She bowed her head slightly and waited patiently for her beloved Captain's next order.

[Sir Razgriz]

Getting to the door before anyone else had even moved, Razgriz had a grin on his face for the first time since before the Arachnid had appeared. Throwing open the door, he was eager to find his former captain. He didn't look long.

A shinigami, obviously supposed to be guarding against his leaving, looked straight at Razgriz before saying "Back inside. Now. We've got a situation."
Confused, the crippled captain responded, "Situation? What do you mean?"
As if in answer, a short bright shape suddenly appeared in the hallway, a slit suddenly appeared on the guard's throat, the bright object suddenly disappeared, blood suddenly appeared all over Razgriz's face, and a light "whoosh" suddenly appeared in said captain's ears.
"Oh. Shit. Blood." Was the initial reaction.
Five seconds later of vacant staring later, the second came.
"OH, SHIT! JUNO!"

[Rikka]

At the sound of her captain yelling, Rikka jumped from her chair to stand next to him, zanpakutoh drawn and in front of her, just to find a shinigami dead on the floor. She looked at her captain, a bit started.

"Sir, what happened?" She quickly asked, looking up and down the hallway seeing no one. She seathed her zanpakutoh, that way it was a bit easier to move around in the cramped space. She stood at the entrance and turned to look up into the eyes of her tall captain. She had heard him yell something about Juno. "Did Juno just fly by or something? She went after the attacker right?" She sighed and waited for an answer.

[Sir Razgriz]

Still trying to figure out what the fuck had just happened (the entire incident occurred in less than half a second, including the body's falling), Razgriz turned towards his Vice-Captain, blood dripping off his face. "No;I think... I think she killed him. I dunno what's going on; that's definitely not something she would do, but I don't know anyone else that fast. If this were a soap opera, we could blame it on an evil twin, but this is the real deal."

Command mode finally kicking in, he called to his seated officer, who was still, well, seated. "Hey, Galm; send a message to everyone you can. This needs to get reported; tell the other captains and VC's. That goes for you, too, Rikka; do 9th through 12th squad, but obviously don't send one to Juno. Galm, do 1st through eighth, but don't send one to us. You're best with kidou, so you won't use as much reiatsu. Let's head to the roof; I'll shoot up some flares. We walk in a triangle; everyone, back-to-back. If we meet people along the way, we'll work them into the group; if Juno snapped, we'll need all the eyes we can get."

"Yes, sir," Galm and Rikka replied, rolling back their sleeves. They both chanted while simultaneously tracing words on their arms, "Black and white net. Twenty-two bridges, sixty-six crowns and belts. Footprints, distant thunder, sharp peak, engulfing land, hidden in the night, sea of clouds, blue line. Form a circle and fly through the heavens."

When the message explaining the circumstances had been sent, the trio formed up and started towards the roof, occasionally sliding on a pool of blood from one of the disturbingly-regularly-space bodies; it seems that there had been many guards watching the rooms. Emphasis on "had been."

[Tahoshi]

When the messages got out from 4th squad's HQ, Captain Phoenix had been in the training area, sat in deep concentration, a white light surrounding him. Slowly, the light formed itself around his shoulders and upper back, disintegrating most of his upper uniform.

He opened his eyes as the message arrived, and lost all concentration. The white light dissipated quickly, spreading around the room. Several of the lighter objects broke under the reiatsu strain, but the other people there were merely shocked. Tahoshi stood up, and walked to the door.

"Without my zanpakutoh, I'll hardly be able to fight another shinigami..." he said to himself, before flash jumping towards squad 4 HQ. His arrival was a bit late to have seen anything, except a pool of slowly expanding blood. Unlike everyone else, Tahoshi walked into it, his Reiatsu keeping him inches above the level of it.

He ran his finger along one of the wounds, and noted its jagged edge, almost chaotic in form, like a lightning bolt.

"This was done by Juno's weapons." he said out loud, not paying much attention to the rest of the group that was nearing him.

---------------------------------------------------

"I see they tried to stop you..." Akiko said, noting the blood that covered her Vice Captain. "There is only one way that we can stop anyone from getting near to us..." she added, turning away from Juno to look up at soukyoku hill.

"The Captain-Commander is the only one that can catch us now..." she said, before turning back to Juno. "Come, my little angel, it is time for us to free ourselves of their bonds."

[Sir Razgriz]

Having left the room, the trio was heading up to the roof, when Galm abruptly called a halt.

"What exactly is wrong with your leg? I know it's broken; anything else?"

"Uh...no? Isn't that still enough to deserve a scolding for moving about, though?" replied her captain.

"Normally, yes. Given that we're trying not to be killed inside a hospital, no. If it's just broken, I could've fixed it before we left; it's just a matter of re-fusing the bone."

"Then why didn't you say so before?!!?"

"I thought it was worse!! Why else would no one else have done it!"

Wisely deciding to end it there, the group stopped and the quickie-operation got underway. Though it only took about half a minute, it was still an incredibly odd sensation for the patient as his bone quite literally moved back into place beneath his flesh.

"...Wow. I thought surgery sans anesthesia would hurt a lot worse." Standing back up, he took an experimental step. "Hey! I still can't bend my- oh, yeah." Sitting back down, he released the kidou fusing his zanpakutoh sheath and leg, before putting his sheath back on the back of his jacket. Getting back up, he took another step. "Ahhh...much better. Thank you! We should keep going, though; I'll take rear guard."

Resuming their journey, the trio was now more than making up for lost time. Getting to the stairs, the two females flash-stepped to the top, while the male took a page out of Tahoshi's book and merely flew up by channeling his reiatsu. By doing this at each obstacle, they soon got up to the roof.
"I hope people here know Morse Code," Razgriz said as he started launching fireballs skyward. "'Juno...deadly...stop. Be...alert...stop.' Grammar takes too long. Can anyone get a fix on where Juno is, or who she's with? I'm only getting a vague sense of direction; I know she's somewhere...that way" (pointing to his left) "and is within...one mile. You two?"

Being initially raised on the Metric system, Galm didn't know how far that was, though she had the (correct) assumption that that 1.609km margin of error was quite large. The two he'd addressed, however, were just good enough at detection to find the misplaced whoosh from up close (such as when Capt. Breyer attacked with a shunpo), so they could merely narrow the field to their East within 500 yards.

"Okay, here's how it works: try to take her alive. I don't want to see her dead because I was her Vice-Captain once. Due to that, I also know that this is nothing like her; we need to find out what went wrong to make her kill her fellow shinigami."

Their targets in mind, they set out, with even Razgriz flash-stepping to find the missing captain.

[Juno]

Hotaru was still fervently running around the darkened streets of Seireitei, none the wiser to the events that had just transpired within the walls of Squad 4. She was tiring from her trek, but wouldn't stop for a rest until she found her Captain. She deeply wished that nothing would happen to her redheaded friend. It would be too much for poor Squad Nine to handle the death of two Captains in such a short time.... Hotaru didn't think that even she would be able to deal with it. What am I thinking!? She shook her head to try and rid herself of the morbid thoughts, negativity like this normally wasn't her thing.

Her footsteps echoed loudly in the silent back alleys, and occasionally she would bump past other Shinigami, but she was on a mission. She had to find her Captain....

***

Juno turned her head to look where her Captain had: Soukyouku Hill, before her attention was drawn to the sky by the bright flashes of light that had been launched from a building's roof. Once the light had died down again, Juno turned back to her Captain "Would you.... like me to go first and wait for you? Or are we going together...?" There was an eagerness in her voice - an eagerness to protect her Captain, to slaughter anyone that threatened her Saviour, to do whatever she could to please her so that she could stay by her side for at least another day. Akiko had been with her since the beginning, just like that boy from the night she was murdered. She had loved him, yet she couldn't do a thing for him on that night. But now.... now she had the abilities to do so....

Akiko didn't answer her right away, and the prolonged silence soon got to Juno. Slowly, she reached out and grasped her by the shoulders.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked, almost distressed, "Because whatever it is.... I'll do it, Akiko. If it's for you... I... would... do... anything....." She had finally done it. She had finally more or less told her beloved Captain how she felt. Over the course of her "emotional outpouring". Juno's arms had gravitated in such a way that she was now holding Akiko in an intimate embrace, holding tight, like she was almost afraid that she would disappear. They stood there, Juno near desperately clinging to her Captain, for what seemed like an eternity, when in reality it was no more than a few seconds before Juno released her hold in a fit of mild embarrassment. She took a few anxious steps back and bowed her head penitently, muttering a few apologies as she unsuccessfully tried to hide a faint blush.

[Tahoshi]

Akiko put a hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look up. She didn't see someone freaked out, but instead, she saw someone smiling at her. Akiko grabbed her hand, and began walking through the shadows of the hidden passages around Seireitei.

"You said you'd do anything?" she asked as they got closer to the hill. "The only thing that we can do to save ourselves, and everyone else here..." she continued, pulling Juno down to a kneel.

"We have to kill the Commander." she whispered, as if someone might hear her, and jump out from the corner. Juno gasped, but Akiko calmed her. "He's the one making them come after us...Once he's gone, it'll be all back to normal..." she finished, picking herself up.

"Come on, we need to get there before they can block every way in..." she said, walking calmly with Juno at her side. The longer they were together, the more the magics would work in her favour, and force Juno to carry out the plans.

-----------------------------------

"Ahh, there you are." Tahoshi said to the group as he finally caught up with them. "Has anyone seen her yet?" he asked, joining the slower Razgriz in his flash-stepping around Seireitei.

"This doesn't look good..." he said to himself... "Not good at all..."

[Sir Razgriz]

"Ahh, there you are. Has anyone seen her yet?" Tahoshi asked.

"Glad for the back-up, but no. Rikka and Galm can tell that she's somewhere East of us, within...how far now?"

"Less than 100 yard; I think they stopped," came Rikka's reply.

"So...about 90 metres. You ready for this, Tahoshi?"

"Sir! They're moving again; is she...is she going toward Soukyoku Hill?!" Galm this time. "Something else, sir...there are others going towards them. I can't tell who they are, and they aren't very powerful, but I've definitely felt their reiatsu before; I think at least one is from our squad. I mean, I could be wrong, but they're definitely S.O. level. I think-"

"Seated officers?! Going against a captain?! Damn; everyone: get into whatever zone you need to get into. We're about to dive into the fireworks. Range?"

"50 yards. They're moving again. I can't see them." At this point, Razgriz didn't know who spoke.

"Alright. Anyone who wants to leave, feel free to go. It won't be held against you. Let's just get through the home stretch and get this fight over with. Anything to add, Tahoshi?"

[Juno]

Left turn. Left turn. Straight. Right turn. Dead end.
Right turn. Straight. Straight. Left turn. Left turn. Dead end.
Straight. Straight. Straight. Right turn. Straight. Right turn. Left turn Left turn. Lucky Guess.

Her wandering had caused their paths to finally cross. But she didn't even realize it until she felt a tingle on the back of her neck. It felt as if someone was behind her. Hotaru turned to look, but before she could, she felt the thud of a blade along her shoulder and the sheath of her Zanpakutoh. The chocolate-haired Shinigami continued with the turn, barely managing to stop the next strike of the gleaming silver blade. She held fast to the sword, even despite her state of shock. "J-juno..!?" She cried, watching, almost in horror, as her Captain drew the other blade of her Zanpakutoh. Juno was still pressing forward with her restrained blade, even as the other one arced down upon the Seated Officer. There was a dull thud, the blade being held back once again by Hotaru's sheathed sword. Within a moment of the blade's contact, she ducked away and released her hold on Juno's other sword, dashing forward as the lack of restraint caused Juno to temporarily lose balance.

Hotaru thought that maybe, if she put some distance between herself and Juno, she would better be able to plan. But the moment to plan never arose. Before she knew it, her captain was in front of her again. So, a quick about-face and she was rushing the opposite way again where she was met with the blade of a spectre from the past. Hotaru was thrown clear through the already damaged wall by the strike. Coughing, she clambered to her feet, ditching the sheath of her Zanpakutoh in the process. Whatever., she thought, I'll come back for it later!. But no sooner than she was up, Hotaru was beaten back to the ground. Juno could have easily killed her by now. She felt the blades on her neck Why hadn't the final blow come?

"Dokueki no Heibi!"

That was why. Kotone had come to her rescue. Weird. She had never thought the woman capable of saving anyone's hide but her own. But as soon as she unleashed her Shikai, Juno was off of her."Kotone! On your--!" *Cough cough wheeze* Oh so that's where I left that blood. In my lung... Spitting more of that precious substance from her mouth, Hotaru raced back through the hole she had made, nudging her goggles up on the way to the action.What she ended up seeing wasn't very nice at all.

Juno had one of Blitzshnell's 'fangs' buried in Kotone's side, Kotone's Zanpakutoh holding back the other While Akiko hurriedly nursed a wound caused by the venomous Dokueki no Heibi. With slight surprise still on her side, Hotaru body-checked Juno, Blitzshnell tearing free of Kotone's side as the Seated Officer stabbed her sword a half an inch into the ground and whispered to the Vice Captain. "Just close your eyes and follow where I lead!" She gripped Kotone's hand tightly and flashed a playful grin. "Accolade of the Rising Sun! Dance of the Autumn Flame!" There was a bright flash accompanied by a sound no less imposing than a dragon's roar as the immediate area was lit up twenty times the brightness of a summer's day. The glow lessened the further away you got from the epicentre, resembling an ordinary day back where Razgriz, Tahoshi, Galm, and Rikka were.

Hotaru ran for it as soon as Maiakienkou's 'atomic' release had begun. Through the hole in the wall she dragged Kotone, able to weave through the many twists and turns in the brightness because of her goggles. The light was dimming fast, though, and by the time she had weaved her and Kotone's way to Tahoshi & co., everything was almost back to normal. "I don't know if they followed us..." she muttered between heaving breaths, pulling the goggles back down around her neck."And if they did..." Another bloody cough, "...Please don't hurt her..."